freesaeednow.org is dedicated to the freedom of Saeed Malekpour, a web programmer held hostage in Iran since 2008.

Saeed Malekpour is a Sharif University of Technology graduate and web programmer held hostage in Tehran’s Evin Prison. He spent six years waiting to be executed before his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2014.

In 2008, after several years of living and working in Canada, Saeed Malekpour returned to Iran to visit his ailing father. While in Tehran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) abducted him off the street. In the first months of his imprisonment, the IRGC tortured him into confessing to an assortment of trumped up charges, including “corruption on earth.” His forced confession was aired on Iranian state-run TV stations prior to his court hearing. During this time, his father died and his mother suffered a heart attack.

Saeed loves coding and hiking, but he hasn’t seen a computer or the mountains of British Columbia in a decade. He was sentenced to death twice despite no evidence or testimony against him. He was allowed to meet with his lawyer for only a few minutes before his court hearing and has never received a fair trial.

The only thing that saved Saeed from death was international pressure, which has largely evaporated without imminent chance of execution. His life sentence is effectively a slower death sentence, especially now that he has suffered a heart attack. The only medicine he has received is aspirin sent to him by his sister Maryam in Canada.

Maryam is fighting tirelessly for her brother’s freedom, but she needs your help to strengthen the needed international pressure.